


pruning

by pointsnorth



Category: Fire Emblem: Shin Monshō no Nazo | Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem
Genre: Gen, also SPOILERS FUCKING SPOILERS, coyote wouldn't want him to live like this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-08
Updated: 2014-05-08
Packaged: 2018-01-24 00:06:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1584401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pointsnorth/pseuds/pointsnorth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a festering wound to them all; Wolf just shows it best.</p>
            </blockquote>





	pruning

The first few months afterwards are hard. No one ever prepares you for this sort of thing; you can be through two wars and hell for a childhood, but no one and nothing can steel you for losing a father.

Not just a father. A friend, a mentor, a leader, a saviour. Their glue. But now he's dead, and now they're torn apart.

Wolf hurts the most. They'd known this would happen, soon as they'd ridden to Marth and asked for forgiveness. How silent he'd been then, how grim! No one but Sedgar had seen him shake, but when he'd whispered it over the fire they'd known.

He throws himself headlong into everything that could kill him. When he comes back from solo patrols (patrols that none of them know about, not even Sedgar), it's only begrudgingly that he allows them to apply vulneraries to his wounds. Only to satisfy them and shut them up, of course. And that's when he's feeling generous. 

He sinks, faster than they could have thought possible, until Sedgar has to take his place for the sake of them all. Sedgar, the new leader of the Wolfguard; may he lead for many a year. The fight that they have after the coup (coup only because Wolf's head has been so completely elsewhere that he couldn't see the tension, the way their soldiers were so unsure and needed a leader whose mind was with the living and not the dead) is furious and terrible, non-fatal only because Vyland is capable of bodily lifting Wolf away before he can break Sedgar's neck.

Once the locks are secured around their former leader's door, Roshea tells Sedgar that he's done the right thing for everyone. Roshea, the only one who seems to always have perspective beyond their family. This is all his fault. If he hadn't won Vyland over, then they could all be dead and at Hardin's side where they belong.

Here they are, and it takes years to burn away the hurt. Sedgar blossoms magnificently, a rock to more than just Wolf, steadfast and thorough and ruled by his head. The Wolfguard once again becomes something to be proud of. Wolf...Wolf doesn't get his wish. Not so easily; he's almost nannied about by his brothers, and eventually seems to sink into some bitter acceptance of this. He lives, and instead takes up a correspondence with Marth's attendant to distract himself. Although he doesn't ride as much any more, and limits himself to the barracks, it's better than dead. Surely.

Vyland and Roshea both move, ever inseparable, to the little orphanage where Roshea's name is hallowed. They take on a different kind of work, one where they ensure that the children whose parents they perhaps have killed see no tragic end like they have. The children adore Vyland, play with his cravat, ask for riding lessons and giggle when he sneaks them sweets from the nearest town. He's an elder brother to them all, and surely this is his life's calling. Roshea falls back into his old habits, teaches them to read and write, tells them about beautiful things that involve no blood. He tells them of his brothers, heroes all, and how dearly he loves them. Nothing will be said otherwise.

When they grow too old to be of much use beyond words, Sedgar and Wolf move out there as well. Wolf needs a purpose, and Sedgar needs respite. The Wolfguard need each other. The wrinkles on Vyland's face and the silver dotting Sedgar's temples are sources of laughter then, as is Roshea's perpetually rounded, girlish face. 

When a gaggle of children come out and recognise the two missing pieces of this little, broken family with awed gasps, Wolf smiles.

For the first time in years.


End file.
